Everything Comes to Light
by daisydol
Summary: Some things come to light in the darkness of the post-battle Burrow.


_Finally getting around to uploading some of the entries I wrote for the Romione Fluff Fest 2017 on Tumblr. This one was for the random word prompt, and I picked 'lumos.' Hope you enjoy! Rated T for mild language._

 **I own nothing.**

"Lumos."

The fifth floor landing lit up softly from the glow of Ron's wand as he stood outside of his bedroom door, his gaze fixed at the darkened staircase ahead.

"What do you reckon?" Harry's whispered words directly over his shoulder were so quiet that they'd have gone utterly missed had it not been so silent in the house around them.

"Don't know. I know I heard something though."

The pair stood in the doorway, the hair standing up on the back of Ron's neck. He KNEW he'd heard something. What the hell it was he couldn't say, but it had woken him from a dead sleep and sent ice through his veins.

Then, from somewhere several floors below, there it was again. So soft that it was barely perceptible, but it had Ron moving instantly - Harry following without question on his heels despite the fact that he had no idea what the hell they were charging toward.

Ron took the fourth floor landing at a jump, the sound growing louder, striking his heart like an anvil. He couldn't get his legs to move fast enough and he had to fight down cold panic from making his feet numb.

Harry's heart slammed against his ribs as they finally got close enough for him to be able to tell what the soft, muffled noise was.

"Holy shit, is that Hermione?"

They'd reached the third floor now and Harry was struck by the fact that he could only really tell that the sound had been sobbing within the last few steps. How the hell Ron had even heard it, let alone had known to take action was a complete mystery.

His thoughts were fleeting however, as the moment Ron burst into the room - wand held high - the sight that met them was as unexpected as it was heartbreaking.

Their other best friend was sitting on the floor beside her bed hugging her knees to her chin, her too thin frame wracked with sobs. She looked as if she had no idea they'd just burst into the room with wands out as her sad, haunted gaze stayed fixed to a point on the floor in front of her. She looked utterly lost.

Ron dropped his wand the moment he saw her and bee-lined it straight for her, the fear of a specific threat gone and his focus square on Hermione.

Harry stopped in the doorway, watching helplessly as Ron dropped to his knees in front of her - his large hands immediately grasping her upper arms softly, rubbing up and down in an effort to soothe her.

"Shhhh, love, what happened? What's wrong?"

As if only noticing he was there in the moment he spoke, Hermione's eyes met Ron's for the first time since they'd entered the room.

Her reaction was instantaneous. As if she was scrambling for the last life boat off of a sinking ship, she threw herself at Ron with a force that knocked him backward.

Throwing one arm around her and another behind himself so he didn't fall completely onto his back, he landed squarely on his bum and braced as she climbed into his lap, throwing her arms around him and burying her face in his neck.

"I'm so sorry, Ron. I tried, I tried."

Ron lifted the hand that had braced their fall and stroked it lovingly over her hair. Harry wasn't sure if he was even conscious of the fact that he'd started rocking her gently. She looked so tiny in his long arms.

"What are you talking about, love? What do you mean you tried?"

Her voice cracked with sobs. "I close my eyes and I see her, laughing over me. I… I see all of them. Everyone's d-dying and we're next and I can't be strong like you and Harry need me to be, I can't! I'm s-so sorry, Ron."

Ron pulled back slightly, dropping his hand from her hair to her cheek with a tenderness Harry had never seen from him.

"The only thing we need you to be is alive, 'Mione. Alive and here with us." His voice dropped to the merest whisper. "Here with me."

Hermione's grip tightened around Ron and he kissed her, the barest brush of lips across her temple, before he buried his face in her mass of wildly curling hair.

"I love you, Hermione. You've taken care of us this far. It's my turn now."

Harry's eyes went wide as Hermione's sobs began to quiet.

Holy shit. Love.

He knew Ron loved Hermione, knew they'd both loved each other for so many years that it was simultaneously amusing and infuriating that they'd both stubbornly refused to take the risk and admit it to one another. He just had no idea that those days of longing stares and jealous rows were over. Finally.

"Shit - I thought she'd be fine for awhile, she was sleeping so soundly when I left."

Harry glanced over his shoulder to see Ginny standing behind him in the doorway.

"What do you mean, 'fine for awhile?'"

Ginny shuffled her feet and looked down, her entire demeanor uncharacteristically guilty. "She practically ordered me not to say anything. You know how…authoritative…she can be."

Harry saw movement out of the corner of his eye and turned toward his friends again in time to see Ron stand up, cradling Hermione in his arms as if she weighed nothing. Hermione's face stayed burrowed in his neck.

Turning toward the door, he took a step toward Ginny. "She's not sleeping, is she."

He'd posed it as a statement, not a question. Ginny glanced at Hermione, torn between loyalty to her friend and loyalty to her brother. Blood clearly won out as she met Ron's eyes and shook her head.

"She wakes up a few times a night. Nightmares."

Ron's expression darkened. "Meet me in the kitchen. This isn't over."

Confusion knit Ginny's eyebrows as her brother pushed past her, a now still and quiet Hermione Granger in his arms.

"Wait, where are you taking her?"

Ron didn't bother to stop as he responded quietly on his way up the stairs. "She's sleeping in my room. We tried it mum's way, now we're trying it mine."

Slowly making his way up the steps, he turned onto the fourth floor landing and began his ascent up the last flight as Hermione nuzzled her nose into his neck, causing goose flesh to erupt up and down his arms.

"I'm so embarrassed."

Ron scoffed, "Yeah, being human is so ridiculous of you."

To his extreme relief, he felt her lips lift in a small smile against his neck just as he'd made it back to his own doorway. He held onto that relief as a means of blocking all of the other sensations that assailed him whenever she was this close. When he could feel her lips and breath against his skin.

It wasn't time to focus on that right now. It was time to take care of her, like he'd just promised. Though, if he was being honest, he'd made that promise in his mind the night they'd escaped Malfoy Manor.

He would never let her suffer again. He'd spend his life ensuring her safety.

The Chudley Cannons zoomed in and out of their posters around the room, tossing a quaffle spiritedly and narrowly missing a very determined bludger as Ron carried Hermione the few remaining feet to his bed and laid her down on it.

She watched as he sat down beside her and reached for his blankets, pulling them up around her as he tucked her in.

She was struck with just how much he was like his mother in this way. When someone was important to him, he took care of them. It was so very Ron that she allowed herself to sink down into his mattress, her heart filling up as she watched him adjust his bedding around her.

Reaching out, she took one of his fussing hands into hers - his clear, blue eyes lifting to her own.

"I love you, Ron."

She'd told him for the first time between soft kisses in his four poster after the final battle and had told him almost daily in the week and a half since, but she never grew tired of watching his eyes melt every time she said it.

"I love you too."

He leaned down and brushed a soft kiss to her lips, then another - his full mouth lingering on hers with each pass.

He could spend hours, days, kissing this woman. She was so warm and her scent filled his nostrils when he was this close, making his head spin. It still floored him that he could do this. That he was finally allowed to show her and tell her how much he loved her. How much he wanted her.

Lifting his hand to brush his fingertips lovingly down her warm cheek, he deepened the kiss for the merest second - torturing himself with the taste and feel of her tongue against his own- before pulling back and gazing into her impossibly intelligent eyes. They glittered up at him with such love and trust that he couldn't help wondering for the millionth time how he'd gotten this lucky.

Lifting his hand again to gently brush her hair back from her forehead, he smiled softly down at her. "Sleep. I'm going down for tea, I'll bring you up a cup."

She snorted haughtily, the sound encouraging him about her mental state the way nothing else could. "You're going down to interrogate your sister, you mean. Don't you dare try and bully her, Ronald Weasley. I didn't want everyone worrying about me while there were so many other things to worry about and she was only doing what I asked. If you so much as cock an eyebrow at -"

"Oi, settle down before you start shaking the walls you nutter, I get it."

They stared at each other for a beat before he dropped another quick kiss to her lips and stood up.

"Be back in a tick."

"Hurry."

With a lopsided smile, he turned and left the room - their casual intimacy soothing a heart that had yearned for exactly this, with no hope of it actually happening, for so many years that he didn't know if he'd ever get over the fact that it actually had.

Harry and Ginny were sitting across from one another at the table, half drunk cups of tea in their hands, by the time he made it into the kitchen.

"I laid your cup out. Water's hot." Ginny said, watching him warily.

"Cheers." He walked across the room to make his cup, his back to the newly reunited couple. When he spoke, his voice was quiet.

"How bad has it been, Gin?"

Ginny watched her brother as he turned slowly and made his way to the table with his cup, sitting beside Harry. His demeanor was casual, but she knew her closest sibling too well. When it came to Hermione, casual was the last thing he was.

With a final pang in her stomach at betraying her friend's secret, she decided they'd already seen enough on their own for the jig to be good and up. It would be far more helpful for Hermione to just tell them the truth, like she'd wanted to from the beginning.

"It hasn't been great. Some nights she just wakes up and sits by the window to read for a bit. Other nights she wakes up screaming. There are times when I have to try and rouse her out of a dream. Those are the worst. She can't seem to bring herself out of it on her own and it takes her ages to calm down once she's properly awake."

Leaning back, she crossed her arms in front of herself, the concerned look on her face melting slightly to one of mild surprise. "It usually takes me awhile to calm her down afterwards. You managed it far quicker than I ever have."

Ron's eyebrows shot up, the idea that Hermione had been suffering for almost two weeks when he could have easily been doing something about it making his stomach ache. "Why the bloody hell is this the first I'm hearing about this?"

Ginny threw her hands into the air in exasperation. "I told you Ron, she forbade me to say anything. Do you think I wanted 'sneak' written across my forehead for all time?"

Ron leaned his face closer to her across the table, his eyebrows slammed down into a dangerous scowl. "No - I mean, why haven't Harry or I heard her having one of these nightmares before tonight?"

His sister sighed. "She wards the room every night before bed. Seriously, a silencing charm would be enough, but she throws up some serious magic."

Ron raked his hands over his tired face, the ache in his stomach growing. She was warding the room as if the war was still raging and she was still in that sodding tent. She'd been scared shitless for days and where had he been? Sleeping up in his comfortable bed with no clue that the love of his life was suffering.

Ginny's heart went out to the agonized expression on her brother's face as she continued on. "She was out like a light tonight, fell asleep with a book across her chest. I took the charms down off of the room so I could nip down here for a quick snack and be able to get back in. I honestly thought she'd be fine, she seemed to be sleeping so deeply." Her own eyebrows lowered in confusion as she regarded her brother. "I didn't even hear her, how the hell did you?"

Harry turned from his tea to look at Ron. He'd had the exact same question.

"Dunno. Guess I sleep lighter these days."

From the slight blush that crept up his red-haired friend's neck and lit up his ears, Harry's suspicions were confirmed. Ron was completely gone over Hermione, so much so that he was utterly in tune with her, even when they weren't together. Maybe it was a wizard thing or maybe this was just how love was when it ran as deep as his clearly did. Whatever the reason, Harry knew for a fact that there would be no going back. His two best friends in the world belonged to each other now.

Ginny seemed to come to the same conclusion and her lips curled in a teasing sneer that only a sibling could master. "You sleep like troll and you know it." Her eyes rolled dramatically. "Ugh, you're so disgustingly in love it makes me want to vomit."

Ron's ears were crimson, but his mouth turned up in a surprisingly good natured grin given that he'd never really responded to teasing all that favorably. "You're one to talk, d'you think I don't have ears? What was that I heard mum shrieking at you for yesterday? Something about you and some poncy savior of the wizarding world in the broom shed?"

It was Harry's face now that went up in flames as the mortification of the day before came back at him in full force. Ginny's face was the color of her hair.

"Shut it, you enormous arse."

Ron leaned back in triumph, knowing he'd scored a checkmate.

Harry cleared his throat. "Well, think that's my cue to head back to bed."

Ginny rolled her eyes with a soft smile. "Coward."

The boys chuckled as Ron flicked his wand toward the cupboard, sending Hermione's favorite cup toward the kettle on the stove to be filled. Ginny moved toward the stairs, Harry at her heels to say goodnight and he turned to the tea steeping on the counter to give them a bit of privacy.

He couldn't help but smile at how easily Harry and Ginny had been able to fall back together. As he heard the unmistakable sound of a chaste peck on the lips behind him, he couldn't think of anyone who would love her more or treat her better. Still didn't mean he wouldn't hex his best friend's bollocks right off if he hurt her.

Turning around once he heard Ginny start back toward her room, he met Harry's eyes for a moment before he shifted them away from Ron to glance around the room, his hands going awkwardly into the pockets of the sweatpants he'd been sleeping in.

"So, you reckon I should kip down here on the sofa?"

Ron looked at him in confusion before realization hit him and his eyes softened. Harry was trying to give them time alone. As tempting as the idea was to have Hermione all to himself for the night, he walked toward their mutual best friend and clapped him on the shoulder.

"Nah, come back up to mine. Hermione'll feel safer with both of us there and if mum figures out that I've got her in my bed she'll be less likely to go completely spare if we're chaperoned."

Harry smirked and the two boys began making their way up.

"So, you and Hermione? I mean, I knew there was some sort of understanding when she spent the night in your bed after the battle and the big mid fight snog, but when we got here she's stayed with Ginny and you guys have played it so cool. You're properly together now?"

Ron smiled softly. "You could say that."

Harry still couldn't get over how love struck his friend looked. He'd had a front row seat to the entire Lavender debacle in sixth year. He'd never once seen this look on Ron's face when he talked about his bubbly, blonde girlfriend. He supposed it shouldn't surprise him now though. He'd be lying if he said he hadn't seen Ron look this way about Hermione before. If he thought hard about it, he could probably find instances of it from as far back as second year.

The pair walked on, passing Ginny's room and beginning the climb to the fourth floor.

"That's excellent, Ron. Long time coming."

Ron smirked. "You could say that too." His expression grew serious and when he spoke again, his words were quiet and utterly sincere. "Not to sound like a total git, but I'm marrying her, Harry."

Harry stopped in his tracks, forcing Ron to do the same. "What? When?"

Ron shrugged. "Dunno yet. Someday. Hopefully sooner rather than later. I've waited for her longer than I'd even like to admit. After everything we've survived, I don't wanna wait anymore. I love her, Harry. No point in waiting when that's not ever gonna change."

Harry felt his face split into a grin and he started walking again, Ron following suit. His thoughts flashed instantly to Ginny and he realized he felt

exactly the same way about her. There was no reason not to be together anymore - really and truly together. Isn't that what they'd fought for? The right to live their lives how they wanted? She had a year left of school, they'd have to take things a little slower for now, but Harry knew that twenty years from now he'd wake up and it would be her face gazing at him across the pillow. He was suddenly anxious for that to start as soon as possible.

They reached the bedroom and the boys peered in carefully, Ron's wand again casting a soft light inside so they could see. Hermione was fast asleep, her bushy hair laying in a mess of curls all over Ron's pillow as she clutched his quilt beneath her chin. The expression on her face was serene and content and it warmed Harry's heart to see that she clearly loved Ron as much as he loved her. Being in his bed, surrounded no doubt by his smell, obviously comforted her in a way that nothing else had been able to.

Setting her tea down on his nightstand, he lowered himself into the bed beside her, gathering her in his arms as he lay down on his back. She didn't hesitate to roll toward him and snuggle up on his chest, her hand gripping the fabric of his t-shirt gently as she continued to sleep peacefully. Ron let his eyes drift closed at the utter contentment he felt with her in his arms. He didn't care what he had to do, they wouldn't be spending another night apart. Not ever again.

Harry settled into the cot and the boys looked at one another with a smile.

"Night, mate."

"G'night, Ron."

"Nox."


End file.
